Displaced OFWs decry Labor officials’ inaction

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The 11 displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have sought shelter in Los Angeles to escape harsh working conditions in far away Mississippi in the US East Coast have denounced the inaction by Philippine labor officials on their request for assistance.

More than six weeks since they fled their jobs at a casino hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, the workers continued to live off the kindness and charity of church and nongovernment groups, their spokesman Normal Paul Yaranon said by telephone to The Manila Times.

Yaranon added that they are very thankful that the family of a Filipino-American pastor took in all 11 of them into their home in Los Angeles, providing them food, shelter and transportation for more than a month now.

To the rescue

According to the OFWs’ spokesman, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Filipino Ministry, the United Methodist Church and other congregations have extended them a lending hand.

“Without the help of these kind-hearted people and NGOs [nongovernment organizations], we can’t imagine how we could have survived all these weeks,” Yaranon said in a hoarse voice.

He added that he and some of his colleagues were suffering from flu-like symptoms.

Yaranon said that they are beginning to feel embarrassed over the inconvenience they may be causing the family of pastor of a Los Angeles church that took them into their home soon after they sought the help of the Los Angeles-based branch of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
The Good Samaritan family prefers to remain anonymous, but they have provided the Filipino workers free board and lodging at their modest four-bedroom house in the heart of Los Angeles.

“Right now, some of us are suffering from flu-like illness. Almost every one of us is coughing or has colds,” Yaranon said in Filipino. “My concern is that we might contaminate our hosts, especially their grandchildren.”

DOLE help sought

Yaranon said that they requested help from the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for assistance—through OWWA Welfare Officer Adonis Duera—while they await the results of investigations by US authorities of what could be a major case of human trafficking.

The workers were recruited by Manila-based Adman Human Resources Placement and Promotions Inc., which has since been suspended by the DOLE for alleged illegal recruitment.

The workers alleged that they were recruited under the US program for employing seasonal non-agricultural workers and granted H2B visas by the American Embassy in Manila, only to discover that the jobs promised them at a resort hotel in Virginia were not available.

They said that the US contact person provided by Adman, who was supposed to meet them at the Ronald Reagan National Airport in the US capital, failed to show up.

Instead, they were left to fend for themselves and told to travel 26 hours by bus to Biloxi where they ended up working for a manpower agency other than their supposed US job petitioner, Aramark, a leading supplier of professional services in the United States and abroad.

US firm’s denial

Aramark denied any involvement in the scam, and company spokesman David Freireich said that the company’s name was misused by unscrupulous people without their knowledge.

“We conducted an internal review and found that our name was misused to provide fabricated employment offers with forged signatures,” he said in an e-mail.

“This was done without our knowledge or permission. We are committed to complying with the law in all of our hiring policies and practice, and have provided information regarding this matter to the appropriate authorities,” Freireich added.

Under US laws, those granted temporary work authorization under the H2B program are supposed to work for their American petitioner, and for another company with prior authorization by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The same rules provide that the workers may not be charged by recruiters of any fees other than reasonable fees for airline tickets and travel expenses, and that any violation of this rule could be a ground for cancellation of the working visa.

$6-K placement fees

The workers also alleged that they were forced by Adman to cough up as much as $6,000 in “placement fees,” forcing them to sell family property or to borrow money at usurious rates.

According to OWWA Officer Duera, he transmitted the workers’ request by e-mail to his superiors in Manila on October 19.

“I understand the predicament of these workers,” he said. “They have been out of job for weeks now, and I suppose they don’t have money for even some of their most basic necessities.”

The workers, meanwhile, decried the “suggestion” of Washington, D.C.-based Labor Attache Luzviminda Padilla for the workers to consider returning to their jobs in Biloxi, or even being repatriated home to the Philippines.

“Why should we return to jobs we have left precisely because we can’t take the stress and the hardships anymore?” Yaranon said. “Of course, we worry about security, too, because we don’t know anybody in Biloxi.”

He added that they are willing to take a loan from OWWA, if they can’t get the assistance they are asking.

“Kung ayaw nila kaming tulungan, sana pautangin na lang nila kami [If they don’t want to help us, we hope the government can lend us money for our needs],” Yaranon said.

Padilla denied that she suggested that the workers return to their old jobs, much less be repatriated to Manila.

“I was just exploring some options for them and for our labor policy-makers back home,” said the attaché, a former Labor undersecretary, during a telephone interview.

She explained that the “options” were based on an e-mail exchange she had with Filipino-American immigration lawyer Ellaine Carr of Gulfort, Mississippi, and was motivated by her desire to save money for the Philippine government.

The workers, however, said they felt let down by Padilla’s suggestions, especially so since they have not received any help from the Philippine government other than the constant presence of Duera and the local Filipino-American community.

During a separate interview, Carr said that a Catholic charity called Refugee and Migration Center was willing to provide shelter and subsistence for the workers should they decide to return.

‘OFWs were victims’

“I respect their decision, if they feel more secure in LA [Los Angeles]. At the end of the day, it’s really their choice” Carr said. “I feel strongly for them because I know they were victims.”

Carr, a law graduate of the Arellano University Law School who moved to the United States about five years ago, said that she has actually traveled to
Manila to help file illegal recruitment charges against Adman as well as the lending companies that were charging excessive interests on loans to the workers or their families.

“We are cooperating with the Blas Ople Law Center and the private practice of [lawyer] Boyet Medina on this issue,” she added.

Carr said that she is appalled by the “widespread” practice of job recruiters collecting “exorbitant” placement fees” from workers under the US temporary work program for non-agricultural workers officially known as the H2B visa.

“These workers are made to pay exorbitant placement fees in exchange for the promise high-paying jobs, and that’s bad. It seems to be the same pattern used [by recruiters] in the Philippines, in Eastern Europe and South America.”

Yaranon said during an earlier interview that he had tried seeking the help of Carr while they were still in Biloxi but added that they did not get any help.

He added that he had the impression that they had to file a case against their employer, who they claimed was not paying them minimum wage, housing them “three to a room” for $350 each a month, and restricting their freedom of movement.

Carr claimed that she does not remember meeting Yaranon.

24 more ‘victims’

She said that the church groups in her area are helping about 50 possible victims of human trafficking, including 24 Filipinos.
“For the security of the victims, and at the request of the [US] authorities, I can’t give you their names and location,” Carr added.

But she said that most of them were recruited by another Manila-based company called C-Drive and assured that they were safe.
Carr added that most of them have been interviewed by US authorities.

When asked if they were still working, she said “Yes” but did not elaborate.

During her meeting with visiting President Benigno Aquino 3rd in October at the signing of a $434-miliion US Millennium Challenge Corp. grant for the Philippines in New York City, State Secretary Hillary Clinton described human trafficking as a form of “modern slavery” that usually involves illicit movement of vulnerable people, especially women and children.

And for the second consecutive year, the Philippines was placed in 2010 under Tier 2 watch list, or countries that do not fully comply with the standards set forth by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of the US. –Jun Medina, Special Correspondent, Manila Times